Nijojo and Kyomizudera

Entrance of Nijojo Castle

Detail of the door from the previous photo. This is all wood sculpted and painted. A butterfly and flours.
These sculpture looks gorgeous but it is not easy to make good picture as it is just under the roof and a little too dark

This is the garden of the inner part of the castle. This building is normally not open to the public.
We could visit the Nijojo main building, it's beautiful but of course you can not take picture T_T, the wooden floor squeeze when you walk on it to prevent thief and assassin (it was the house of the shogun).
There is a special energie over there, I was transported in the old days with the sumptuous painting on the shoji walls and the wooden sculpture on the upper part of the walls.
My favorite is the sakura tree of the main shogun reception room, I stayed 15 minutes in front of it without notice anybody around me.

After Nijojo we decided to go by foot (yes by foot) to visit gion and then go to kyomizudera. As it was a sunday, we can see many people in traditonal clothes, the kimono.
I am facinated by kimonos....there is an expo of kimono in the museum, from the momoyama period to edo period. Want to go T_T

This men contribute to preserve the traditional way of running around kyoto, the rickshaw (at the right on the picture, sorry you will have to go on internet if you don't know what is a rickshaw ^_^)
He is explaining with great signs to the two girls sitting in the rickshaw something about this stone. Could not understand sorry T_T